Indie publisher Influx launches Kickstarter to raise £15k

Influx Press has created a Kickstarter campaign in a bid to grow its business.

Influx Press has created a Kickstarter campaign in a bid to grow its business.

Supported by industry figures including author and editorial director Max Porter and author and campaigner Nikesh Shukla, the publisher intends to raise £15,000 to fund the press for the next two years.

After five years of publishing and receiving previous Arts Council funding, Influx has decided to "go down the crowd-funding route", following the successes of popular campaigns including those for The White Review, Dodo Ink and The Good Immigrant (Unbound).

Editor Kit Caless said: “There’s a limit on our resources in terms of marketing and publicity. We believe in our books and so do our readers, but it’s not a level playing field out there for reaching new audiences. If our Kickstarter is successful, the money we generate will go straight into promoting our new titles and helping to source new readers.”

Influx also intends to use the funding to find new writers and to continue to "foster an accessible literary culture that takes the work seriously, but with a sense of fun and a straightforward approach that implicitly assumes literature is for everyone".

“We publish risk taking books on subjects that aren’t, at first glance, very commercial", Caless said. "Sometimes books breaks through, such as Imaginary Cities, other times they don’t. When you run a small press you live and die on each book published. Our crowdfunder is designed to help mitigate that knife edge situation somewhat. I’m really excited about our 2017 titles and what this campaign can mean for sourcing writers and new books in the future."

Rewards for supporters include all of Influx Press's 2017 titles, such as Hold Tight, an upcoming book which explores Grime music and masculinity by Jeffrey Boakye and Eley Williams’ short story collection, Attrib and Other Stories.

Porter, author and editorial director at Granta Books, said: “Influx Press is an exciting independent publisher making good and interesting books. But more importantly Influx Press are noisy. They call out bullshit. They scream praise for good work, good people and good ideas. They are political. For a small press they have a huge presence and it is vital for all of us that they grow, continue and thrive.”

Author and co-founder of the Jhalak Prize Shukla called the publisher "one of the most interesting and caring independent publishers around".

"They do what they do because they love everything they publish, are willing to take risks and want to add something to the culture and they're also just the nicest people in the business,” he said.

Sunny Singh, author and co-founder of the Jhalak Prize, added: "I love Influx Press for publishing thought provoking, fascinating – and yes often – dangerous books. Plus its books are always beautiful, with gorgeous design and high production values making them a joy to own, gift, but most importantly hold, read and reread."